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CradlexPuffsleeve

Hmm…it’s been a while since I did an artist feature, isn’t it? Well, let’s make this a double post then. Cradle (Misaki Kurehito, male) and puffsleeve (Kuroya Shinobu, female) are circles that I’ve always loved, ever since I saw one of their joint touhou art books years ago (of course, I had no idea then). They’re affiliated with something called Yack too, but I have yet to figure out exactly what that is. These two artists are nearly identical (working for the same company, Abhar, and being friends might have something to do with it, though that never happened with Suzuhiro and Nishimata…but that’s just me going off track). They’re both extremely talented artists with an affinity for a style that focuses on strong colors and strong brush strokes, both of which I absolutely love.

Since their art is so similar, I’ll start with Cradle’s art first (he is the more popular of the two and also the one behind the top image). Tidbit: before his current job, he has worked as an interior designer and a pachinko maker! Source: 100masters of bishoujo painting, which is a book that everyone should get. The only thing that I’d complain about is that there isn’t enough artists in there (100 isn’t enough, it really isn’t).

At first, he was using a style which put emphasis on the shapes of the colors, instead of lines.

Eventually, he switched to a style that has stronger lines, which looks more polished (plus takes less time to do). However, he occasionally does (relatively) flat images (color wise) like the one above.

Being a full time artist at Abhar, he has been the main character designer for two of their games, including deep blue sky and pure white wings, their first title.

That was followed up with Smile Cubic. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the games were all that well received, but the company’s still going so it’s all good.

The way that he colors skin reminds me of older games from the 90’s, which is pretty interesting because you just don’t see that anymore.

Misaki Kurahito is also pretty prolific with other projects, doing a lot of magazine spreads and guest art for other companies. The above is an illustration for Yosuga no Sora, which is a game that I look forward to playing. There’s translation projects in both Chinese and English, which means it must have some good (this only applies to fan translations, too often, commercial companies pick up the worst titles to translate).

Next, let’s take a look at Kuroya Shinobu, whose art I prefer out of the two. You can see that she also started out with painting (I don’t call it painting when the artist draws out the lines and then fills the lines in). Of course, she also moved on to a cleaner style.

Reason #1 why I like her art: she’s a she, and I always cheer for girls.

She also displays some more variation in styles, and a love for Rozen maiden is never a bad thing, right?

Her newest project is Abhar’s newest game, which has yet to be released. However, it looks absolutely GORGEOUS! Compare this to the Misaki Kurehito game art above and see why I always get confused as to who drew which.

No matter what, there two are artists with incredible skill and definitely worth keeping an eye out for. Now, if only they’d produce more stuff more often…

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4 thoughts on “CradlexPuffsleeve”

Ooh, Misaki Kurehito is one of my top favorites at the moment. His work is why I’m interested in Yosuga no Sora. Well, that and the gorgeous figure of the female…I mean, wow! Not going to buy that though.

Hmm, the artists are very similar, but I definitely see differences in them…love Kuroya’s kitty though. All of the illustrations with her, not just that one.

Are you talking about that swimsuit figure? And too bad that he didn’t work on Yosuga, right? I feel like he’s perfect for it (really, they should have picked someone better than Hiro Suzuhira if they had the money for it).

Oh, so it’s two people now it all makes sense. Damn now my picture collection for Misaki Kurehito is all muxed up with Kuroya Shinobu’s mixed in. Although Kuroya’s mature ladies seem to have some long body proportions in some drawings, and the victorian era clothed loli reminds me of Takeda Hinata’s Gosick arts.

Abhar’s games are normal slice of life so I guess you have to be someone who can trudge through those or just be in a certain mood to not find it boring. At least both the BG and character designs are great, and if I remember it’s wide screen too!